Gjirokastër is a city of stone, and it makes you look up. Houses with thick walls and slate roofs, many built as tower-like fortified homes called kulla, climb the steep hillside under a huge castle, and the cobbled lanes that link them are so slanted that you will think twice about riding up them. The old town was recognised by UNESCO in 2005 as a rare surviving example of an Ottoman town with its character intact, and it has a dignified, slightly melancholy air.
The castle, one of the largest in the Balkans, has seen Byzantine, Ottoman, Italian and Communist occupants, and the display inside includes captured aircraft and a tunnel network built during the Cold War. Gjirokastër is also known as the birthplace of two very different men: Enver Hoxha, who ruled Albania as a communist dictator for four decades, and Ismail Kadare, the novelist who wrote about the city in his memoir Chronicle in Stone. The city's mixed history of Greek, Albanian and Ottoman residents is part of its fabric.
The Drino valley is a wide, green corridor, with the Mali i Gjerë mountains to the east, and the approach from the south or from Saranda takes you through olive groves and small villages. Roads in southern Albania have improved, but you should still watch for potholes, livestock and drivers who overtake in unlikely places. Summers are hot, so ride in the morning, and winter brings rain and cold winds, with snow in the surrounding mountains. The ride to Saranda and the ferry to Corfu goes through lovely coastal scenery.
Gjirokastër has fuel stations on the main road, plenty of guesthouses in old stone houses, and cafes in the bazaar, which climbs steeply from the main square. Try qifqi, rice balls flavoured with herbs and fried, and byrek, flaky pastry filled with cheese or spinach. Keep your bike somewhere secure, preferably in a courtyard, and expect to walk, because the old lanes are better suited to feet and donkeys.